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The Preface of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy begins: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (p. vii). Last summer I had a wonderful healing while leaning on God, the sustaining infinite.

I was in the middle of a five-mile run when my left foot fell into a dip in the road. I felt a sharp pain, but was grateful that I hadn’t fallen. I kept on running without any problem and reached my driveway soon after. Thinking nothing more about what had happened, I continued my afternoon with errands and laundry. About three hours later, I sat down for a few minutes and then got up to find that my left ankle was extremely painful.

I felt fear come in. How could this be? I wondered. I was fine a few hours ago. I worried that age and many years of running might finally be taking their toll on me, and that I might have to quit this activity. I have always loved to run each day, and have participated in over 20 marathons including the 2013 Boston Marathon. I’ve always felt God’s protection when running, and have had many healings involving this activity.

I hobbled to the sofa and tried to pray, but the pain was so intense that tears came, and I felt barely able to move or think. My cellphone was sitting right there on the coffee table, so I dialed a dear Christian Science practitioner and explained what had happened. With lots of love, he calmly reassured me that I was the image and likeness of God, and that I could only express qualities of strength, stability, and endurance. I couldn’t be subject to any accident because “accidents are unknown to God …” (Science and Health,p. 424).

The practitioner suggested that I open up my copy of Science and Health randomly and read. I turned to page 282 and found this statement: “Truth has no home in error, and error has no foothold in Truth.” A passage on the following page asserts that “Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action.” Wow—God was speaking to me right then and there! The fear suddenly left as I realized that I wasn’t leaning on an ankle—which has no intelligence of its own in the first place—but rather on God as my true support.

I read for most of the evening and at one point came across a word that Mrs. Eddy mentions many times in Science and Health:fetters. This statement stood out to me: “Divine Science rends asunder these fetters, and man’s birthright of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself” (p. 226). I looked up the word fetter in Webster’s Dictionary, which defines this word, in noun form, as “a chain or shackle for the feet,” and, in verb form, as “to restrain from motion, action, or progress.” I realized that as God’s child, I couldn’t be shackled with age or wear and tear on the body. I was always safe as Mind’s idea, and accident, chance, or mishap had to be a false belief. I was never out of step with God.

The next morning I awoke and got out of bed totally healed and free from any pain. Then I went for a run. When I called the practitioner, the first words out of his mouth—even before a “hello”—were “Are you dancing yet?” “Even better than that,” I replied, “I just ran three miles. The dancing will have to wait for later!”

In the many months since, I have continued to run with the freedom that God has bestowed on me. Being able to run that morning brought gratitude and joy, and the realization that this healing brought me closer to God. I am so deeply grateful for Science and Health and to Mary Baker Eddy for sharing the wonderful revelation of Christian Science with the world.

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